1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a special call fee charging method, and in particular, to a special call fee charging method that allows both a call origination subscriber and a call termination subscriber to have their advantages.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As market competitions are becoming severe, individual competitors are seeking various their survival measures. In particular, those companies are intensively attempting to get their customers. Examples of means for getting customers are direct mail, hanging advertisement in buses and trains, commercial message in TV and radio, and so forth. Among them, a sales telephone call is especially effective to explain a particular product to a prospect and to stimulate his or her purchase desire.
However, before a sales person of a company or the like as a call origination subscriber performs a sales talk to a prospect, the prospect mostly tends to disconnect the call. Thus, to get a customer, the sales person should make many telephone calls. However, even if the prospects disconnect the telephone calls before the sales person explains the sales product to them, the sales person as a call origination subscriber is charged for the telephone calls.
On the other hand, although the prospects as call termination subscribers are not charged for the telephone calls, they spend their valuable time. Thus, the prospects may ask the sales person for compensation for their valuable time.
The present invention is made from the above-described point of view. An object of the present invention is to provide a special call fee charging method that allows a call origination subscriber and a call termination subscriber to have their advantages.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a special call fee charging method, comprising the steps of: (a) causing an exchange device to receive a call origination signal from a call origination subscriber terminal unit; (b) causing the exchange device to inquire of a special charging server whether or not the call origination subscriber terminal unit is a specially charged subscriber terminal unit; (c) causing the special charging server to reply to the exchange device whether or not the call origination subscriber terminal unit is a specially charged subscriber terminal unit; and (d) if the call origination terminal unit is a specially charged call terminal unit as the result at step (c), causing the exchange device to notify a general charging server that the call origination subscriber terminal unit is charged a special call fee.
The method according to the first aspect may further comprise the steps of: causing the exchange device to inquire of the special charging server about a charging period; causing the special charging server to notify the exchange device of the charging period; and causing the exchange device to send a charging request to the general charging server whenever the charging period elapses in a talk.
The method according to the first aspect may further comprise the step of: causing the special charging server to register a telephone number of a subscriber terminal unit as a non-specially charged subscriber terminal unit with a table, wherein if the telephone number of the call origination subscriber terminal unit has not been registered with the table, the special charging server determines that the call origination subscriber terminal unit is a specially charged subscriber terminal unit.
The method according to the first aspect may further comprise the step of: paying a part or all of the margin between the special call fee and a regular call fee to a call receiver.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a special call fee charging method, comprising the steps of: (a) causing an exchange device to receive a call origination signal from a call origination subscriber terminal unit, the call origination signal containing a special charging request; (b) causing the exchange device to notify a charging server that the call origination subscriber terminal unit is charged a special call fee; (c) causing the exchange device to inquire of the charging server about a charging period; (d) causing the charging server to notify the exchange device of the charging period; and (e) causing the exchange device to send a charging request to the charging server whenever the charging period elapses in a talk.
The method according to the second aspect may further comprise the step of: paying a part or all of the margin between the special call fee and a regular call fee to a call receiver.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent in light of the following detailed description of a best mode embodiment thereof, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.